A Sun Blog

Thoughts on movies and movie culture from a film fanatic

Lots of big news in the world of movies this week. Let’s get to it. * We finally have some more news on the next James Bond movie. Director Sam Mendes, who also directed “Skyfall,” made several major announcements Thursdays regarding the franchise’s next installment. First, the title: The next Bond movie will be called “SPECTRE,” which (as longtime James Bond fans undoubtedly know) is the name of the terrorist group Bond fought during most of his early movies. This… Read More »

Well everyone, the J.J. Abrams era of “Star Wars” has officially arrived. There are other important bits of movie news this week, but the first teaser trailer for “Star Wars: Episode VII- The Force Awakens” obliterates them all like the Death Star destroying poor Alderaan. Here’s the trailer, along with the rest of this week’s Hollywood Highlights. Some individual moments to note: Hey, it’s another black guy in a Star Wars movie! Disney took quite a bit of flack when… Read More »

OK, I think I see now why some people complain so much about the superhero takeover of Hollywood, or at least the general trend of megafranchises consuming so much of the filmmaking business. This week pretty conclusively proves that Marvel, DC and their competitors are scooping anyone and everyone with any sort of celebrity and dumping them into some sort of franchise. We have news about James Bond, Captain America, DC’s Suicide Squad project, Evil Dead and Wonder Woman. Of… Read More »

So…after several relatively slow weeks, this week saw a huge slew of major movie news, especially in the realm of superhero movies. Apologies if you don’t care for superhero movies, but the fact is they are the biggest movies in the world. They’ll be huge for years…until they aren’t anymore. Such is the way genres come and go. Here are this week’s Hollywood Highlights. * First, some non-superhero news: Neil Patrick Harris is moving from hosting the Tony Awards to… Read More »

Hey, did you see that I’m launching a movies podcast? Well, I am. Look for the first episode of The Cinema Breakdown early next week. Now that that’s been covered again, here are the highlights from this week’s entertainment news. * After months of teases and build-up and hype, we finally have our first full trailer for “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay- Part 1.” (Seriously, that title makes me want to hurt something every time I read it or say it.)… Read More »

We’re almost out of the dog days of summer; with the exception of “Guardians of the Galaxy,” it’s been a fairly unremarkable season at the box office, especially in terms of August releases. But fear not. As we await some more promising offerings in the fall and winter, let’s see what news there is out of the movie industry. Here are this week’s Hollywood Highlights: * It’s been a pretty dismal summer at the box office. Variety reports that the… Read More »

Warner Bros. has finally announced the official title for the forthcoming sequel to “Man of Steel.” And that title is: ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.” Ugh. In a Facebook post released today, Warner Bros. announced the title and gave us the promotional image seen above. Principal photography on the movie also began today in Detroit, so Superman and Batman can make it look like even more of a desolate hellhole during their inevitable smackdown. While I like the “Dawn… Read More »

So, Variety is reporting that Israeli actress Gal Gadot will play Wonder Woman in the upcoming “Man of Steel” sequel, which may or may not be called “Batman vs. Superman.” (Warner Bros. has registered a bunch of domains referring to titles other than “Batman vs. Superman.) Gadot, best known for small parts in the “Fast and Furious” franchise, has confirmed it as well. This should be good news, right? After all, I’m on record calling for Wonder Woman to be… Read More »

I don’t have a whole lot to add to this solid piece from Grantland’s Hollywood Prospectus blog on how Marvel’s uber-producer Kevin Feige picks who’s going to direct their movies. In short, Marvel is willing to take gambles both on risky material and seemingly odd choices for directors; as Iron Man himself said in his first movie, “It’s worked out pretty well so far.” (Side note: That monologue right there is Robert Downey Jr.’s arrival moment as a soon-to-be mega… Read More »

As I wrote about last week, DC Comics has, in conjunction with Warner Bros., finally pulled the trigger on a plan to build an interconnected superhero movie universe akin to their Marvel/Disney rivals. Their plan is to make a Batman-Superman team-up movie (tentatively titled “Batman vs. Superman,” which makes me want to hurl), followed by a movie about The Flash before pulling it all together for a Justice League movie, DC’s equivalent of 2012′s ultra-smash hit “The Avengers.” “The Avengers,” of… Read More »

About This Blog

Rob Ryan joined The Gainesville Sun in 2010 after graduating from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Though he graduated with a degree in journalism, he also studied film and is a longtime cinephile. Rob now spends his days soaking up all things cinema and his nights on the copy desk. His favorite movies are the original Star Wars trilogy.